Seeds of Italy Vegetable Seeds

Seeds of Italy from Franchi - the oldest family run seed company in the world. Giovanni Franchi the current Mr. Franchi’s great, great, great, great, great grandfather, started selling seed from his horse drawn cart at the local market piazza the same year that Mozart wrote his first mass!

Anyone who has travelled extensively in Italy, especially the rural regions, will know that the Italians are passionate about their food and a high proportion grow at least some of their own so that they are eating the very best fresh produce. Although one thinks of Italy as a sun drenched country two thirds of Italy is alpine, with the Alps and Dolomites in the North and the Apennines running down the spine. The result is that some of the varieties are very hardy.

Seeds of Italy do have an extensive catalogue and from this we have selected a collection of some of the best flavours so you can crop these from your own garden. If you do go to the trouble of growing your own vegetables to ensure that you are eating really fresh goods which will then have the highest possible vitamin content, it makes sense to also have varieties which will give you the best flavour as well. With this in mind we have decided to offer Franchi seeds, as we know the quality of the varieties. All packs have generous seed quantities and are aimed at the allotment holder, small grower, gourmet and professional.

It all began in a small garden behind a baker's shop in Tavern Street, Ipswich, tended by William Thompson, the baker's son. He started work by helping his father but, stricken with ill-health, he began studying botany and passionately cultivated the garden at the back of the shop in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. He was soon to acquire the name of the 'baker botanist'. From the back garden he moved to a nursery at the edge of Ipswich..

In 1855 his first catalogue was produced and this was to be the forerunner of an unbroken line stretching through to today. William Thompson specialised in growing rare and unusual plants, seeds of which were sent to him from many overseas countries. The seed raising firm expanded and, in a particularly foresighted move, William Thompson entered into partnership with John Morgan.

William Thompson died in 1903 at the age of 80 but he had lived to see Thompson & Morgan become one of the country's greatest seed firms with a reputation for introducing more species and varieties to the British gardening public than any other seed company - a tradition that continues to this day.